Schedule your lessons online with any of our instructors. With our team in different time zones, we offer classes virtually any day, any time.

Street Smart Brazil

We are experts in the Brazilian language, culture, and lifestyle. We have experience living, learning, and working in Brazil.

Our mission is to help you gain the ability to communicate well in Portuguese and navigate the Brazilian culture with ease. Our passion is to offer learners a fun, challenging, and fulfilling learning experience.

Street Smart Brazil was founded in 2008 by Luciana Lage. With 10+ years of experience teaching Portuguese, Luciana created a unique approach to teaching Portuguese using original content, focusing on class customization, and emphasizing the cultural experience. Luciana Lage currently teaches Portuguese at University of San Francisco and previously taught at University of California, Berkeley.

Enjoy the Street Smart Brazil quality:

We have excellent instructors who are highly trained to help you speak Portuguese fluently in any situation. Our excellent instructors are native Brazilian, college educated, fluent in English, and have work experience both in Brazil and abroad.

We use a communicative approach to teaching Portuguese making use of real-life situations to develop your ability to live and do business in Portuguese.

Our language programs are packed with cultural content and tips. After all, how effective is a foreign language speaker without cultural sensitivity?

51 Portuguese Idioms - Speak Like a Brazilian

You will learn each expression inside a real-life context: everyday situations that could happen to any of us.

Testimonials

I loved my Portuguese classes! I was enrolled with Street Smart Brazil for a few years and I would continue if I could! Street Smart Brazil makes learning a language fun and exciting while never having a dull moment. I was able to take classes before work on my own time and the lessons were structured around what I needed to improve on. I chose the 1-on-1 classes via video chat, which I would highly recommend! At first I was hesitant with the idea of digital learning, but Street Smart Brazil has everything planned out perfectly. I learned, not only, about the language but about the culture as well. Now speaking with Brazilians is a breeze! Whether it is to travel to Brazil, work in Brazil or reconnect with your roots, I would highly recommend Street Smart Brazil for any Portuguese related learning.

Yasmin

Street Smart Brazil has been incredible. As someone who is focused on international business as a profession and a passion, learning languages has always been critical in helping me bridge cultures and really get to know people. I’ve worked with dozens of language teachers in my life and, incredibly, Street Smart Brazil’s conversation class stands out as one of the best ways to learn, not to mention the most convenient. I’ve been really impressed by the way the classes have been really relevant to me, from both a topic and level perspective. Moreover, our classes have been a team effort between the teacher and small handful of students pushing, supporting, and taking an interest in each other. The improvement in my Portuguese should be testimonial enough to Street Smart Brazil’s value, but let me just say that it was an immensely enjoyable ride to achieve it!

Jessica

I started traveling to Brazil 3 years ago for business and used Pimsleur to give me some basic proficiency. My employees in Brazil were always impressed with my willingness to learn their language and my rudimentary attempts at speaking. As part of this interest, I was looking for Portuguese videos when I came across your YouTube videos and that’s how I came to know Street Smart Brazil. Now that I’ve invested in 1-on-1 lessons, I can’t say enough good things about the program or the instructor.

Richard

As a language lover, I have learned multiple foreign languages through multiple sources and media. I must say that Street Smart Brazil is absolutely the best language program that I have encountered. I wish there would be programs for other languages that are just as good as Street Smart Brazil.

My instructor understands exactly where I stand, and she adjusts our materials accordingly. In just a few months, I was able to learn materials that I would never have been able to master in a few years in college or some other classes. Before signing up for Street Smart Brazil, I thought that Portuguese was a mysterious Romance language that was too difficult to even read, but now I have really fallen in love with the beauty of the language.

Before signing up for Street Smart Brazil, I thought that Portuguese was a mysterious Romance language that was too difficult to even read, but now I have really fallen in love with the beauty of the language.

Other than the linguistical aspect, I have learned so much about Brazilian culture and way of life. I barely knew anything about Brazil and assumed that it must be similar to other South American countries and Western nations in general. However, now I know just how unique its culture is: all the way from food to music. Now I listen almost solely to Brazilian music, which covers a much wider range of genres than one might expect.

I can also have meaningful conversations with Brazilians, who really appreciate it when someone shows interest in their language and culture.

Daniel

I love my Portuguese lessons. My instructor is fantastic. She listens to my requests and allows me to practice what I want to practice. I also like the written exercises and the fact that I can practice conversation with my teacher. I can work on my speaking and listening. She moves at a pace that I can follow, and she always challenges me to learn more.

Kate

If you can’t move to Brazil to learn Portuguese, the next best thing is to join the classes at Street Smart Brazil.

Years ago, I started out with Luciana for one hour a week. It seemed a long time and it was hard. But Luciana taught me the Portuguese that Brazilians actually use, and she made it fun!

I went on to another tutor and then another one. I wanted a longer class so we made it an hour and a half. Now, I think that isn’t enough. Time flies – O tempo sempre voa. If I start my class tired after work, we go at it and at the end, I am full of energy!